Learn the monster SXSW teams (Ehug vs EG). (extremely long read)

Since aslong as I can think, the America Dota scene has never really had someone dedicated to writing about them or helping people learn about them and To be frank it sucks that Gosugamers and Joindota are so Bias towards European Teams and helping get people acquainted with. This will be my first time trying to Help people learn about Everyone who will be attending the Monster SXSW LAN, Hope it helps some people out.

the First team We can learn more about is what most people believe will be the favorite, Evil Geniuses (EG).

Evil Geniuses has been through quite possibly the longest "roster shuffle" of any team ever. Their last truly stable roster was at/before The International 2 that consisted of Maelk (c) , Demon , Fear , Universe and Bulba. Going through a Dreamhack and Ti2 Bootcamp was amazing even though they couldnt quite secure a Top 8 finish they still Represented America as well as team coL did. After several more Roster changes we have been introduced to yet one other change, which will hopefully carry them to a Ti4 Invite. The Recent acquisitions of PPD (PeterPandam) and Zai (Zai) and Arteezy (A-god) have finally secured EG two world class support players aswell as a Captain who actually wants to be a captain. Along with that comes with the biggest pickup of the three, Arteezy aka The Babev aka the Armenien Baby Faced Killer aka A-god. Bringing a Mid player of his caliber (1 for 1 at Major Lans) is something that EG has needed for sometime, So how does their team look individually?

Fear

The most known player of the 5 is Clinton Loomis aka EG.Fear. Once known as FearDarkness, he brought the pain to Competitors in the earliest leagues such as IGS/Cal teaming up with people like Remstar (I apologize me and Spit tried to find old IGS replays for Dota 1 but couldn't). He's in time became the most known American Player ever playing for Teams such as coL(PLuG) / Nirvana.int / old EG / and probably his most known team in MYM. Hes now back with EG and after a brief stint as captain, he will now leave that role to someone else and will be able to play the Carry role that everyone thinks he should play with less stress on him. He will be the most feared Carry in America for aslong aslong as he continues to play Dota.
To people who don't truly know if Fear knows how to play Carry and how to use Free farm, here is one of my favorite games of Fear in the Carry role (Dota 1).

The Offlane player of EG, Saahil Arora aka Swahili O'Nealy aka The Dunk Master. Universe is one of the few players who has been to all 3 Internationals, though only showing up as a coach at Ti1 for Nirvana.int, He made a name for himself by his excellent studying of other teams and his infamous "Black book". With some teams in between, he joined EG along with several other Nirvana.int players and made a great showing at Seattle, finally showing why Americans always bragged about him. Finally moving to Dignitas before Ti3 (replacing Sneyking). they bootcamped in Canada and had what alot of people would say, horrible Bootcamp with internet problems nearly 24/7. During The Ti3 group stages he showed some of the best Offlaning out of anyone, finding EXP and farming wherever he could. A shame they didnt quite make the money at Ti3 (Definately not His fault) he finally found himself on EG again in what will definately be his best year again. Match ID 546012937 for a very recent MLG TKO Matchup vs C9 where he showed his Dark Seer will always be a factor even without have to be in every fight.

Signature Heroes:

Arteezy

The Mid player known as Artour Babev (Refer to previous Nicknames). The up and coming community voted God, with only 1 LAN under his belt already considered a top 3 Mid player (even with some Frenchies disagreeing). Arteezy has less of a History then the previous two, but thank god some people keep track of God awful scrubs like Arteezy when they first start. Starting about 2 years ago a NAdota allstar team consisting of WizFujin (A Now pro LoL player on team Coast) , Ganked (NAdota admin) , Saga16 (plays under the name KnivesChau in matchmaking) , Milkshake (Voted 1 of the worst posters on Nadota ever). This team at first look is the biggest stinkpot of a team you could imagine, but it helped get Arteezy out there if even sllightly. Below you will find a Link to one of the only recorded games of their Career, when they face off against Brax's old team. Besides that Arteezy is just another normal High school kid with a girlfriend who just wants to be the best there ever was, and with what he has shown so far, it might not be that far off.

One of their support players, Peter Dager aka Peterpandam aka Franzzii aka Sneyking's girlfriend in HoN. One of the newest players in the Dota2 competitive scene has some Dota players confused on who he is. Peter was a world class support player in HoN where he went to an astonishing 3 LAN's (Dreamhack and HoNtour's). Peter played for teams such as Infused and the ever illustrious Complexity gaming before swapping over to Dota 2. In Dota 2 people first started noticing him in IXDL-I/NEL aswell as smaller tournaments where he played for team Stayfree with Zai / Tralf / Ensoe and a ever changing 5th. He was in Dignitas for 1 month before being replace by Bdiz. Probably feeling down he didnt let it get to him, and continued to hone his skills, and look where he is... The captain of the most greatest E-sports organization ever. Below you can read some of his older blog posts and get into the mind of who Peter is.

Last but certainly not least is Ludwig Wahlberg, the lone non-American (swedish) and the youngest player on EG. Somehow boasting an impressive Age of 16, he beats out the 17 year old Artour. Doesn't it just seem like Sweden gets to many good players? Well Zai is no exception and is ready to show the world his teenage Angst. Hes so young, I bet theres nothing about him!!! Well, Zai is already a winner of a Major LAN aswell, taking home Dreamhack winter 2012 in HoN, literally carrying his entire team on his back while they got drunk and acted like morons. He also went to the giant LAN in Thailand (where seemingly 0 info of is) where he managed to get 2nd place; aswell as a 2nd place at the latest HoNtour. Zai will be playing Support for EG though and will look to improve on his Micro and perfect his already sweet mechanics which hopefully will be on Stage during the SXSW LAN thats almost upon us. Any of his replays during MLG TKO would be good to watch if you want to see what hes all about.

Signature Heroes:

Why should I root for EG?

If you are European and are wondering who to root for in this LAN, You are probably thinking "I can just root for Singsing and PLD!!, Why should I root for EG?" If you love Starpower and cheering for the juggernaut, then EG will be the team to root for. If you like watching a core of 3 amazing already tested players team up with 2 rookie support players then EG is for you. If you like amazing mid play coupled with Sick ass Dark Seer and dunk plays then EG is for you.

Why should I not root for EG?

The Second team we will learn about is The All American, All Gangster (check the Logo), eHug.

eHug (which stands for Online hugging you morons), Is the newest sponsor which seemingly came out of nowhere. Before getting the sponsorship the core that moved on was from PBS aka Pretty boy Swag. Already boasting a team house which is currently resided in by 3 of the 5 members, they are a up and coming team which America has needed for some time. With no back round of the actual organization, lets get right to the players.

Pandaego
(Ryuuboruz , Imasheep(sux) , Pandaego).

Jared Fletcher who most people know from his time in PBS and Take 5. His Competitive experience goes back to HoN where he was on team T7H (also on that team was the legendary Asway who used to write for Gosugamers). With little top 3 finishes in HoN he moved to Dota 2 like Every Dota 1 turned HoN player, where he became a mainstay in the IXDL/NEL scene. Much like PPD, he was one of the few people who didnt shy away from The Blue/Pink captains spot and took every chance to hone his Drafting skills. Soon after he helped bring together a team known as tM (Typical Mistakes) which was able to take quite a few games off the American teams at the time in Liquid/Dignitas and all of the South American teams. tM Pseudo died and gave birth to PBS which would later go on to Give Dignitas an Amazing run on LAN, Coming in 2nd after losing 1-2 in the finals. Pandaego showed amazing drafting in every game, rarely being outdrafted. He plays Hard support and is a more passive player, much like FluffnStuff. You have to own the EMS Raidcall's Latest ticket, but if you do own it check out Match ID 326358932 and watch Pandaego's amazingly played Rubick.

Signature Heroes:

Ryuuboruz

Ryuuboruz aka Alan Andersen aka The Pretty Boy aka The Real R-god (Relic sucks) is the mid player for team eHug. Making the rounds in all of those teams you read up in Pandaego's Bio, he eventually ended up on Team eHug aswell. Known in the North American circle as the 2nd best mid player aside from Arteezy, he has put up amazing fights in both 1v1 tournies that IXDL hosted. Perhaps a tad more passive then Arteezy , and a tad more farm oriented over harass he harnesses the power to outright win a lane on CS alone. He aswell loves to Rotate a lot earlier then arteezy when his team is getting dove. Hes known for carrying a TP scroll around level 5. To watch a game that was completely controlled by Ryuu, check out game ID (MLG TKO) 528260519.

Signature Heroes:

Cak3z
Sorry for the giant ass picture, Cak3z hates pics I guess.

Clay Winkler aka I dont know what else he goes by, is the offlaner for eHug. Ill be fair to say it was hard to find anything about Cak3z besides everything you can find about him at the MLG Full Sail Invitational. He has shown amazing results and is known to only play Matchmaking (rarely played in IXDL). Hopefully SXSW wont interview the most known players and give us some cool new shit about players like cak3z. Ever since he has replaced MSS I havnt been able to watch as much Dota to recommend a replay for you guys, Sorry.

Signature Heroes:

ima_sheep(sux)

Donal Cheung aka ISS aka The only asian left on eHug is 4 (support) for team eHug. ISS is a old school player who has played on Dota 1 teams such as the old school Exigent which boasted old inhouse players such as Aznist and ChAmP. Maybe what hes best known for is his dominance in the Local Canadian Dota scene where he recently (kind of) won the last Toronton OverClock tournament taking down team Siren (which consists of Annihilate and Sunbhie who are both now in Korea) and team Hood Mentality (which consists of Dota 1 Legends Miraclechipmunk and mO-). ISS was also a Grand champ in the sheep tag Arena during the Era of 3.16 competitive play, He also stated his hatred of Runtag which later became the main competitive mode in Sheep Tag. Below is the link to read more about their victory at the LAN.

Jigglebilly man, This guy is a Streaming legend. Also known as Marcus Dastrup, he is the latest addition to team eHug as their carry player. Without a doubt in my mind he is going to be the next big American star. JiggleBilly is best known for his trolling antics back in Heroes of Newerth and created probably the most known youtube video that ever came out of that god forsaken game (Link below). He is a known Felon (in the twitch world) and Twitch has tried keeping him down for sometime now. Simply Marcus taking off his shirt now gets him banned while Girl streamers are allowed to Bare all for anyone, not fair. But Has Jiggle let that keep him down? No. In a Recent post on Twitter he renounced his crazy antics and his fun loving self and has become determined to train his ass off. Will we miss the old JiggleBilly? Most certainly, hes by far the most entertaining Personality any **** has ever had and RIP to him. This will be Jiggle's first LAN and I really cant wait to see how he stacks up to the other Carries that have proven themselves.

People are always complaining about now having an Amatuer scene in American, If that was true we wouldn't have eHug which spawned from teams like Typical Mistakes and Pretty boy Swag. If you like the underdogs and watching players get better then eHug is for you. If you dont like the cockiness of C9 and EG then eHug is for you.

Why shouldn't I not root for eHug?

Have you seen their logo?

How is this first Bo3 gonna go?

I think this is going to be a little bit closer then some people expect. eHug is definately the biggest underdog, but with a Mid player in ryuuboruz and Carry in Jiggle I think they have a good shot of taking a suprise game 1 off of EG, do I suspect them to win the series? no. EG is just to strong in individual skill and Teamwork already. If you've watched most of MLG TKO or Joindota America you have seen the power that they bring to the table, Besides that 0-2 to some European team and that 0-1 (it was a match that was literally a televised scrim that didnt matter) to cloud9, they have been nearly invincible.

I have EG Winning 2-1.

Matchup to Watch

Arteezy vs Ryuuboruz. I honestly think Ryuuboruz is a better mid player then Demon, and Arteezy will have his hardest challenge right here in these 2 (or 3) games. There will be a ton of rotating in these games, as both teams love to pick roaming supports in Chen/CM a bunch so we'll see if they let the 1v1 happen or start interferring immediately.

Just like to say, I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts etc and that I hope it wasnt to long or pointless. Big shoutout to @Rynge_ and Huber for helping me get my motivation back to actually write shit and play Dota

Just like to say, I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts etc and that I hope it wasnt to long or pointless. Big shoutout to @Rynge_ and Huber for helping me get my motivation back to actually write shit and play Dota

oh wow thanks

awesome post!

Originally Posted by Numeta

LMAO Cactus you poor poor thing. That 50$ an hour (lets pretend along) won't make you a dota god son. You are stuck with your shit brain for the rest of your existence. That is true punishment.